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Sonicbids Spotlight: Pravada (Indianapolis, IN)

Going for something ‘just a tiny bit creepy’

Margot And the Nuclear So And So’s offshoot Pravada is back after a seven-year hiatus to release a new full-length album, tentatively titled Dirty Looks. That release will be preceded by the limited-edition 10″ EP No!, to be released next month.

The Indianapolis-based indie trio of Jesse Lee (vocals, guitar), Casey Tennis (drums, keyboards/sequencing) and Hubert Glover Jr.(bass and horns) has enlisted the help of fellow Margot-ers Andrew Fry and Tyler Watkins to record No!, an EP that the band describes as “upbeat sugary-sweet pop.”

Lee and Tennis have been musical and writing partners since their teen years, while Glover and Lee coincidentally met playing together in the New World Orchestra (on trumpet and cello respectively). Lee and Tennis began feverishly working on the first Pravada album, Manus Plere, when things took a slight detour and the formation/rise of Margot in the Indianapolis music scene caused Pravada to be put on hold. Five years later, in the summer of 2009, “tension was running high” in Margot, and members began to dissipate, so Watkins, Fry and Tennis took the opportunity to begin work on Pravada’s second album.

The new tracks are “more straight ahead and less technical,” says Tennis. “We wanted songs that people would want to sing along with. Heartfelt, fun and just a tiny bit creepy.” This effect has been achieved in the creative arrangement of catchy hooks, eerie keyboard riffs, brassy horns and Lee’s multifaceted vocals that compare to that of Ray Davies of the Kinks.

They built the album up, recording a ton of songs as options for the final tracklist on the full-length album, and then, says Tennis, “We stripped down and kept only what was essential and/or awesome.” You can’t go wrong with essential awesomeness.